tasting

Hoarding a secret guac recipe that your friends have been coveting for years? The time has come to let it reap you some extra glory….at Diamond Bar‘s Guac-Off this Sunday!

The avocado showdown is part of a fabulous Taco and Ceviche pop-up hosted by local caterer The Fury, and the competing guac will be served up alongside tacos from 2-4pm. Diners will then vote for their favorite, ultimately crowning one contender Guacamole Master Extraordinaire (and earning them a glittering prize!!)

Anyone wishing to enter the guac-off should email Dave: dave@thediamondbrooklyn.com

To take part, just make up a standard serving (approx 3 avocados) and take it along on the day. Diamond will take care of the rest.

Taco and Ceviche Pop-Up with Guacamole contest is this Sunday May 31st at Diamond Bar (43 Franklin Street)

Unlike its cousin DUMBO to the south, the area “Down Under the Pulaski Bridge” currently has no acronym. Which is just fine, because lately the area has something better: its very own nanobrewery—Transmitter Brewing, a 3-barrel brewery located just under the LIC access stairs. Continue reading →

In celebration of Fat Tuesday, The Habitat is hosting a beer tasting with Bayou Teche brewery from Louisiana. The brewery crafts beers specifically to complement Cajun/Creole dishes – so it will go perfectly with my favorite dish – a generously portioned Chicken and Andouille Gumbo served with a side of warm cornbread. Plus they will be serving a Stout paired with special house made ice cream!

A flight of four following beers ($14) will be served with complimentary food pairings:

It was a great pleasure sampling stroop in Transmitter Park with Carina of Dutch Artisan, who will be sharing a table with Eastern District at our market on Saturday. Like a good Dutch woman she biked to Greenpoint from Park Slope and told me her story while feeding me delicious globs of Dutch Apple Stroop.

I know you are wondering WTF is stroop? Well, it’s not jelly and it’s not jam – it’s its own thing – it’s stroop. It is made of apples from very old trees in Holland, tall apple trees. The apples are boiled down into what resembles molasses and has a sweet and tart prune flavor, and it is perfect with cheese – plus there are lots of great recipes where it can be used as well. I also tried some sweeter stroop, made with beets and apples and now I am enjoying it every morning on my toast. Continue reading →

Chef Ryall Hyatt has created an inspired Lamb and Beef Kofta to pair with the Rye. The Kofta (think of it as a spiced, skewered meatball) will be grilled then served with a Rye-infused honey sauce and a sprinkle of fresh herbs.

On Wednesday March 20, 2013 at 6:30pm – a little bit of Cajun spice takes over Troost (1011 Manhattan Ave).

Come experience a traditional southwestern Lousiana Cajun gathering, complete with music, dancing, and authentic cuisine. Toby Rodriguez will be sharing his rich Cajun culture and savory creations. He will be preparing some of the most treasured dishes that come from a traditional pig boucherie, his specialty.

Jesse Lege, one of the fines Cajun singers and accordion players, will be playing tunes!

Taste Williamsburg Greenpoint is coming up on September 9, 2012 from 1pm-5pm at CitiStorage. Erin took some drool-worthy photos from last year’s event to get your taste buds going. I got an email from the owner of Teddy’s Bar & Grill this morning which explained that aside from being the biggest and best North Brooklyn foodie mecca, the funds raised from this event go toward converting “the legendary, shuttered, ‘people’s firehouse,'” into a community and cultural center in Williamsburg called the Northside Town Hall Community and Cultural Center. They have raised “$1.1M in government funds,” but additionally must raise the rest of the funds for this project to demonstrate wide support for the Town Hall and “trigger the funds.” Of course, Greenpoint-based Kickstarter is hosting an online fundraiser where they aim to raise $10,000! And you can buy tickets to the event to support this cause as well!

Up to seven teams will create their greatest homebrew/snack pairings to be made available for sampling during the event. Guests vote for their favorite team. The most popular teams win prizes and all ticket proceeds go to a soon to be announced charity.

At a recent Yummy Eats Dim Sum dinner with wine pairings by Wine By Design NYC, the food was the real super star. The food paparazzi were in full force and when Chef Joseph Yoon brought out each gorgeously plated dish, anxious hands held back until every iphone in the room recorded the food glory. That is what you get when you have an underground supper club filled with foodies and food bloggers. Food photo frenzy!

The food didn’t only look great but it tasted exquisite. And Lauren Johnson, our genius sommelier perfectly paired wine with each dish.

Don’t tell, but we drank 25 gallons of wine! And I actually learned a few thing. Normally I just gulp gulp gulp, but Lauren is a not-preachy-so-I-actually-listen teacher and gives great insight. She loves wine and it shows.

Like the first pouring, a Cava, which is comparable to Champagne, but has bigger bubbles (interesting!) has been drunk by the Spanish Royal family for generations. And “drunk” is a non-standard usage, but correct past participle of the verb to drink.

The cava was perfect with the first dish, the dish why I was there, my favorite dish ever: Tuna Tartare on Wonton Crisps. The fish was so fresh, so flavorful, with great texture and it wasn’t overly seasoned with ginger or soy sauce. The soft raw tuna on the crispy wonton was the perfect texture mix-up for my mouth. And it kept coming and I kept eating it!

Why did Joseph Yoon, Dim Sum Super Star, get into cooking? For the ladies of course. He had me at Tuna Tartare.

Next we had deep “double” fried Crispy Scallion Pancakes, executed perfectly with a ginger oil that Joseph prepares a few hours in advance with fresh grated ginger in canola oil.

The next pouring was a naturally effervescent Portuguese Vino Verde, which to me tasted earthy and fresh like a wine salad, and when you hold it up to a piece of white paper it has a gorgeous green hue. The dishes we paired them with were really fun, too.

Someone kept asking, “Does this have fish in it?” More for me, but did you read the menu?

Time for the most spectacular looking dish: Tempura Anchovy w/Wasabi-Sriracha Sauce. If you are scared of eating entire little fish bodies, fry them (or let Joseph do it) because anything fried is delicious. They were so flakey, not oily and not too salty.

Next was Lobster & Pancetta Wontons. I know your brain can’t handle this, but just hold on. They were everything you could ask from a wonton, crunchy on the outside, warm and soft on the inside, but oozing with creamy lobster and bacon!

The third pairing was a Pinot Noir. Such a great go-to wine, silky and smooth.

In my family, the only time there is complete silence is when we have a stunningly delicious dish in front of us and our mouths are too full to actually speak. I had a similar moment with Skirt Steak-Steamed Spinach & Quail Egg Wonton. Ooey gooey mini egg goodness and falling off the bone meat in a crunchy shell, but not for long because these were one biters for me. For once I couldn’t speak.

Braised Beef Short Rib Steam Buns time! The buns are so interesting to me, because they are so light, and combined with fresh greens it’s paradoxically like eating a salad sandwich with a lot of moist perfectly seasoned juicy beef. Best buns I have ever had.

Get this: Korean Pear w/Five-Spice Pork. I have to say this is my first dessert-time meat and I was really into it.

It went with the last pairing was with a “Grand Terroir” which when compared to the Pinot Noir in terms of colors was so light and bright. The wine was in a screwtop and Lauren explained: “This wine is meant to be drunk young!” which was followed by a heated discussion on screwtops vs. corks. With a wine not meant to be aged screwtops are the way to go.

For the kicker, we ended the evening with Maple Ice Cream w/Chocolate Bacon followed by a Late Bottle Vintage Port, which is made from grapes literally rotting (with fungus) off the vine, so you get a deep and rich almost raisin taste.

Thanks Yummy Eats and Wine By Design for a truly memorable (despite the gallons of wine in my brain) meal.

Greenpoint’s favorite beer store had a barley wine tasting. What a perfectly snowy weekend to drink strong beer by a wood burning stove. Learning and drinking are two activities I enjoy and combining them is even more fun, although retention can be a challenge. To be honest, I don’t know shit about beer.
Good thing Erik and Frances, the beer geniuses who work at Brouwerij Lane, and my man Jon, who is a home brewer, were there to school me. I was so sorry when I asked, “Do you think there are more wine makers or beer makers?” After an in-depth discussion (I wasn’t even listening) the final answer was, “Who cares, beer is better anyway!” I was bound to learn something from this bunch of beer nerds.
We were served a flight of 5 barley wines (totaling 40 oz!) on a laminated guide detailing each brew. If you don’t know what Barley Wines are, I can tell you one thing: they are knock you on your butt strong. It is a type of beer that is “brewed to match the strength of wine,” about 12% or more alcohol, according to our handy placemat. They are nice and sweet and very easy to drink. It was wise that we shared the 40 oz. flight.
We tasted the following:
Pretty Things Finest Regards, The Bruery Cuir, Firestone Walker XV, Avery Hog Heaven, and BFM & Terrapin Spike & Jeromes.
Between each flight we drank a lot of water, because the barley wine leaves such a lasting flavor in your mouth. The flavors and colors between each varied very much. This is my first session of really trying to understand the flavors happening in my mouth, instead of just mindlessly chugging.
“Coconuts!” I kept getting the taste of coconuts and I liked it. Frances didn’t believe until he sipped and agreed. Erik explained that Barley wines are aged in oak barrels, which accounts for what is more likely vanilla rather than a pina colada flavor, like the Cuir which is aged in bourbon barrels. Or the XV, which is blended with Stout so it was chocolatey, too.
Ever drink with a beer snob and they are like, “this is really hoppy” or “this is really malty” and you are like “what is this guy talking about”? I better learn if I want to hang with this crowd.
According to Jon, hops are a flower, which contribute bitterness to balance the sweetness in beer. They give flavor and aroma to a beer which can range from fresh cut grass to pine needles to citrus to herbal earthiness. How lovely! A good example from the barley wines we tasted was the Hog Heaven, in which you could smell the pungent hops before even tasting it, which were piney and citrusy.Jon explains that malt is the sugar that ferments in beer to make alcohol and carbonation, but some sugar remains and that residual sugar is what gives beer it’s sweet flavor and “mouth feel,” which is how thick or watery the beer is in your mouth. Malt flavors can be a basic sweetness or can taste roasted, or like coffee or chocolate or caramel. Our Finest Regards was very malty and the best example of a traditional English Barley Wine and our favorite of the flight.